Bridging minds
by Kimi Raikkonen
Summary: The four very different characters we know so well do have experiences bridging the divide...


**CHAPPY 1**

"Sakura Hime!" Syaoran's tired eyes lit up instantly brimming with glee.

Sakura's eyelids twitched a little then opened a fraction

"Syaoran...kun..." Sakura muttered Looking around the little room she then asked, "What...happened..."

"Hime..." Syaoran seemed a little too shocked to react.

"You blacked out when we put that last feather into you" piped up Fye, who was sitting at the foot of the girl's bed, he cupped his pointed chin with his hands "Then Moko-chan helped us change dimension and Kuro-pon carried you here, to this hotel. Hyuu! Kuro-myuu is so strong! Hyuu! I bet the girls at the reception thought Kuro-sama was such a great daddy!" The mage turned his chestier cat face to the stony ninja in the corner.

"Leave me out of this!" Kurogane snapped, in a tone that was strangely reflective, "And quit the silly names!"

"Big Puppy is angry today! Down, good puppy! Don't pounce at the kids! Wonder who's on Kuro-wanko's mind..."

With a great roar the ninja drew his sword and rose to his feet. In one rapid fluid motion, Kurogane was slightly crouched over, with a firm grip on his katana and essentially ready to attack. His scarlet eyes pierced into Fye's icy blue ones. Fye, still not moving from his position, laced his long fingers across his lap and smiled up at the angry Kurogane.

Kurogane roared, rather repetitively, and straightened himself, half lifting the long sword to hit Fye, when his head thumped against the roof with a resonating thud.

Sakura, now fully awake, exchanged stunned looks with Syaoran. Fye, still frozen in his relaxed position, giggled.

"Silly Kuro-wanwan..." The giggling didn't stop.

Kurogane's red eyes narrowed as he use a large hand to massage his head, leaving one to wonder whether he was caressing his hurting head, touching up his smashed in hair do, doing both or doing one while pretending to be doing the other.

"Run!" Fye was off just milliseconds before Kurogane let loose another roar and chased.

Syaoran sighed. At least he was now alone with Sakura.

**CHAPPY 2 (a)**

"Syaoran-kun," Sakura asked "In my latest memory, I was playing a game...can you tell me what it was called?"

"What is it like Hime?"

"Er... there were three of us, me and the two we met at the restaurant? We sat in this hall thingy and played with bits of paper...the heart ones, the diamond ones...and was it a club? A spaye? Then there were numbers, pictures...do you know the name Syaoran-kun?" Sakura stared straight into the amber eyes of Syaoran.

"Touya and Yukito..." Despite the vague description, he remembered the moment all too well.

start flashback

"Yukito-san, Touya-san what are you doing?" asked a chirpy, enthusiastic Sakura

"Nothing, go away" Touya flicked his hand dismissively

"Your Highness, who is playing today?" Yukito smiled into thin air.

"Enough with the Keigo" Touya replied curtly, "I thought you were going to invite..."

"Oh whoops!" Yukito said, grinning cheesily in a way that the author thinks she may have seen before in another Tsubasa character, which makes one wonder whether there was any ulterior motive, as the certain other Tsubasa character may have had.

"On the other hand" Yukito said, looking upward trying to appear innocent, "we COULD let Sakura and Syaoran play..." The tone was so playful and silly that it make the author all the more certain Yukito may have been a certain character's self or relative in a different world.

"Dang!-"

"Come on!"

"No they-"

"Please?"

"They just-"

"Pretty Plea-"

"No!"

"Your high-"

"No more kei-"

Tired out by the war of words, Yukito hit Touya squarely in the stomach with his staff. Ok, maybe that was a bit exaggerated. It was more like a war of fragments. However, either way, Yukito hit Touya squarely in the stomach with his staff.

Touya muttered unspeakable curses and dealt the cards.

end flashback

"It's called bridge." Syaoran muttered. Sakura fainted.

**Chappy 2(b)**

"It's called bridge." Syaoran muttered.

At the mention of the name, all the many little things floated back into the little princess' mind.

Start flashback

"Why thank you!" Sakura said as she picked up a stack of books on the table, "I will read though them"

On top of all the bridge guides there was a small pink handbook which, on the cover, someone had written in a boyish scribble "Sakura Hime's bridge notes". Along with it there was a pencil with intricate carvings.

"Wow! What an expensive gift! Thank you!" Sakura said, blushing as she thanked the non-existent life-form.

There was a silence then Sakura chirped "Goodbye!" and opened and closed the door.

The first thing the pencil wrote was a line across the word "Hime".

end flashback

**Chappy 2 (c)**

The two tall figures were pressed against opposite sides of the door frame like a pair of ancient Gods.

They were "accidentally overhearing" as the shorter man would say. They were "listening and so what" as the taller man would say.

"It's called bridge..." Syaoran's voice was but a muffled whisper through the door. Both pairs of sensitive ears picked his voice up.

"Oooh...bridge..." Fye murmured.

start flashback

Fye rummaged in his pocket and fished out a single shiny coin. Flipping it about in his freezing palm he decided that, the next day, he would have no option but to sell his staff, the last of his possessions. The beautiful staff that had cost him two thousand Celes pounds would probably only earn about two hundred now. Fye smiled to himself. At least he still had a job during this economic depression, even though the job hadn't paid him for three months.

But, Fye told himself, clearing his mind of all other thought, today he would live on, with that little coin, with his staff, with a smile on his face and with hope in his heart. Looking down at the glinting metal he muttered "here we go my little twenty Celes cents…"

He had spent 5 hours of his Sunday strolling around the super mart. Fye smiled at the lady who was changing all the prices down by 50, he smiled at the cleaner who seemed the last of her kind to avoid retrenchment and smiled at the owner, who, now demoted to the duties of a cashier, was wringing his sweat-encrusted hands in hope of a big buy.

"How's it my friend?" asked Fye, waving a thick green lettuce in front of the little shiny coin. He let the owner scan the lettuce and touched the coin to his lips with a parting kiss.

With a sudden whoosh, another shinier twenty clinked into the owner's hand from behind. A hand then spontaneously clapped upon Fye's back and propelled him out of the shop. Fye had just enough time to scrabble for a firm grip on the lettuce and the coin, before jerking to a halt and whipping round to come face-to-face with a stocky tall man with a shrewd face framed in long black hair.

Ashura.

"Er…hi…boss." Fye flashed a meaningless grin at him 'Thanks for the…'

Ashura raised an eyebrow with a cold look that froze Fye's words in his throat.

"I could pay you…" Fye tried again

"Fyefyefyefyefye" Ashura sighed in his husky voice, "Are you always going to be like this? Come, I'll let you repay me in another way…"

"Er…" Fye scratched the nape of his neck where the borrowed robe was tickling him, "4 clubs?"

"Pass"

Ashura smirked, "4 hearts?"

Fye accessed his hand. Why hadn't Ashura shown him his hearts earlier? But with such a weak hand, nothing more than 4 could be done…"

"Pass!" Fye chirped

Ashura's face blackened.

"Double" Came the high-stakes-gambler to the left of Fye.

"That makes a 4 hearts contract!" piped up the casino helper, "Now Mr. Ashura, you are the declarer and Mr. Flowrite, you are the dum-"

"AND DUMB IS THE RIGHT WORD!" Ashura leapt to his feet, throwing down his cards with a murderous glint in his eyes.

end flashback

Fye grinned. Yes, it was bridge that landed him here. It was bridge that made Ashura owe the casino millions in damages, it was bridge that made Ashura and him lose by thousands of points to the opponents, it was bridge that made him use his staff for the last time, it was bridge that caused Ashura to end up in a frozen state, it was bridge that made Fye vow bitterly to never use magic again, it was bridge that taught him what a splinter bid was and it was bridge, that landed him here.

**Chappy 2(d)**

"Hyuu..." muttered Fye, shaking his head to rid himself of the memory. "Has Kuro-rin played bridge?"

The man snarled at the name but still remained reflectively silent.

start flashback

"Kurogane!" Tomoyo's check turned a pinky rosy color. "When will you learn what true strength is? It is not meaninglessly killing random people! I want you to do down there and help them with your amazing strength..." Tomoyo pointed a finger downward to her garden.

Kurogane turned muttering curses the author would decline to translate. "Stupid girl, Can't she see I was trying to protect her?" Kurogane stated in a huff as he jogged downstairs.

He surveyed the scene. Great. Build a bridge Kurogane, make the big mighty one stoop to slapping bricks together. Just perfect. He sniffed the air and fiddled with his dirt clogged nose.

Something was not right.

Kurogane looked around and with his hand on the hilt of his trusty sword, darted about the place, determined. Despite the years of knowing each other, Kurogane was still surprised the princess might let something happen in her own garden. Good thing he was around, he told himself, swelling with ego.

Everyone stared. The area was nothing but wood planks and dirt, why was this man running around like a headless chicken?

The ninja stood with one leg on a little bucket, trying to pose suavely like a Christopher Columbus. He closed his eyes and tried to seek out the exact location of the danger. He had been employed to protect the princess and that is what he was doing. Yahoo.

Just as he closed in on it his leg crashed through the thin wooden boards atop the bucket and with a sickening "splut" his leg was submerged in a grey sticky thing which he would later find out was cement. The mighty Kurogane took a comical tumble and landed in a heap of cement coated arms and legs. Not too suave if the author should say so herself.

Kurogane was visibly irritated. The audience choked back their tears of laughter as the man shook his mighty leg and sent the bucket in a perfectly aerodynamic arc and with a crash, hit one of Tomoyo's window. Whoops. There goes half of his monthly salary.

Then he stopped, he shook his head, it was till there. He closed his eyes it was still there. The ticking sound soon blotted out all other sounds and pounded the ninja's head as he locked on a location and whipped out a little blade and leapt to his feet.

Carving a quick cone out of the mud, the ninja brought a black object into view. He lifted it up with his dagger to have a quick look, and then lobbed it into the distance.

With a deafening thunder, a bright crimson explosion erupted from the heart of the city, right where the offending item had dropped upon the ground. Towering tongues of fire licked up the oxygen even one stratosphere away and sent off cumulonimbus clouds. Houses and villages were immediately consumed in the blaze and the whole city was engulfed in a thick smoke. Kurogane sheathed his dagger as if it was just another day at work.

When he was done, he roared, "Which of you did that?" The construction workers were terrified. The city's best ninja leapt into action.

"No takers!" Kurogane growled. Then in a crescendo, he continued, "Then all bear the punishment!"

He chased and finally cornered them atop Tomoyo's roof. When the ask and smoke simmered down, all that was left was a dozen or so dead bodies littered all over the place and a laughing ninja with a sword positioned across his shoulders and a smirk across his face.

"Weaklings! You are all too weak! Too weak I tell you!" He roared to the distraught city.

"Kurogane..."came a soft, disappointed voice.

Kurogane looked toward the source of the voice and saw the sweet Tomoyo, ashen-faces and sad, looking out of a smashed window with a cement bucket in one hand and massaging her stressed tired brain with the other.

End Flashback

"Dang bridge" Kurogane swore to no one in particular.

"Kuro-sama does know that the kids are talking about the game bridge and not the concrete and brick bridge right..."Fye teased "Of course, Kuro-chan is not so stupid! Why did I even bother...

Kurogane's face turned from pink to red to magenta.

"Awww... Kuro-puppy is blushing! Hyuu! Hyuu!"

The pair embarked on another morning jog.

**Chappy 3**

They found the pair in the kitchen

Fye stirred a mysterious substance over low fire which had yet more mysterious lumps in it. The rest had long given up asking what Fye was cooking since it tasted good anyway and more importantly, they could not risk the mage pouting since no one else could or wanted to cook with the strange foodstuffs available in each world. Kurogane was sharpening his katana with great gusto probably inspired by the presence of a certain mage.

"Kurogane-san, Fye-san," Syaoran began, "Sakura Hime and I would very much appreciate it if you play a card game with us. Just a simple game of bridge..."

There was pin-drop silence. Kurogane's sword had stopped in its position along the sharpening stone. His eyes made contact with the young boy's without moving his head and seemed to burn into them, his mouth opened ever so slightly in shock. Fye had stopped stirring and let go of the spoon, surprised. The spoon then sunk into the depths of the bubbling viscous liquid. For once, the smile seemed to be fading off his face.

Sakura was the first to speak.

"Syaoran-kun, maybe we shouldn't have asked..."

"No! No!" Fye's plastic smile returned, "Come Kuro-tan, let's go play! Kuro-daddy must spend time with Fye-mommy and the kids!"

Kurogane contemplated roaring and chasing Fye again but realized that if anyone ever made him a famous manga character, all the audience would think he was a shallow guy knowing only violence. Hence, he restrained himself and made do with a low growl and a futile swipe at the mage.

"No1 Heaven's sake!" He snarled.

"Kuro-mii! We can't play with just 3 people!" Fye pouted "or I'll tell Tomoyo-Hime her Kuro-wanko has been a bad puppy and is a shallow guy knowing only violence! Humph! I bet Kuro-pipi is just scared of losing and..."

Kurogane sighed and got up. The things he'd do to get the mage to shut up.

The mage clapped his hands with glee and grabbing the taller man by the wrist, led him out, leaving his soup to bubble into nothingness.

**Chappy 4**

"So..." said Syaoran when everyone was uncomfortable crowded around the square dining table, "How will we decide partners?"

"I know! I know! Pick me!" Fye raised his hand till it hit the roof and bounced on his toes.

"Yes...err...Fye-san." Syaoran called awkwardly to his "student" that was two times his height.

"2 people play scissors paper stone! Come Syaoran-kun! I'll play with you! You win, you with Sakura, you lose, you with Kuro-chi, we draw then you with me!"

Syaoran's small hand delivered a tiny scissors that shredded Fye's long white palm of a paper into bits.

"Hyuu, hyuu!" went Fye spontaneously, "I'm with big mighty Kuro-puu!"

"Shut up, stupid mage!"

"Language Kuro-pin! You're such a bad example for the kids!" Fye waggled a long finger in front of the brunette's face and shook his head solemnly from side to side.

Kurogane growled. This was going to be a long day.

**Chappy 5**

Cards bent noiselessly in a graceful dance, entwining in mid-air and fell upon the table in a whir. A pair of slim hands patted the cards together in a plastic cuboid. Sakura proceeded to slide the cards to each person where it stopped directly ahead of each person.

"Hyuu! Sakura is so pro! Hyuu!" Fye commented.

"Yes! It is really amazing Hime!" Syaoran found a comment necessary at this juncture.

Sakura smiled. It was good to feel useful, she thought. She was so deeply indebted to this trio after all.

The ninja was silent and was breaking out into a sweat. It was difficult to play a game when you had never seen cards before. He mimicked Fye's way of picking up the cards, glad that he had not attempted it on his own. He had thought they were supposed to look at the pictures. Fanning it out was easy for his large hand and he continued to follow the way all the others moved cards from one location to another though rather confused as to all the squiggly symbols. But no ninja could admit defeat! If he could kill, he could do anything. Or so he thought.

"1 diamond!" Squealed the sweet dealer.

Kurogane inspected his cards and saw some diamonds! So there were different symbols! He happily arranged his cards in order of the suit. He stared intently at his cards with diamonds on it. Did Sakura mean she had one of those cards? Did she have the card with the number 1? Now Kurogane was lost.

"1 heart!" Said Fye

Kurogane looked frantically for cards with hearts and saw none. That's odd, he thought.

"3 diamonds!" Syaoran replied.

"Wahhh... Syaoran supports Sakura!" Fye exclaimed, "What are you gonna do Kuro-iino?"

The ninja scratched the back of his head. Fye and him were partners right...what did that mean? Was he supposed to help Fye? Was he supposed to do something else? Could he choose any number he liked? What...

It's just a stupid game, Kurogane told himself, why think so hard? If Sakura says 1 diamond, Syaoran goes to three diamonds, if Fye went to 1 heart, so if he followed, at least it would be valid.

"3 hearts..." the exhausted ninja grumbled. Glad his turn was over.

But how would he have guessed that Sakura pushed forward, again.

"4 diamonds"

"4 hearts then" Fye smiled like a jack-o-lantern

"5 diamonds"

Ah. Now he saw the pattern, the numbers went up every time.

"5 hearts!"

"6 diamonds!"

"Oh...pass then" Fye conceded defeat, "go on Kuro-muu, up to you now."

"Kurogane had no idea what that meant.

"7 diamonds?" Now Syaoran was a little unsure.

All eyes were one Kurogane. No! The brat could not have the last say! Was that even the purpose of the game?

"How do 7 hearts sound?" Kurogane grinned, though unsure of what he was grinning at.

"Pass" Sakura managed to whisper, shocked that she lost the contract

"Pass" Fye grinned

"Dou...ble' Syaoran said unbelievingly. Kurogane obviously couldn't do it

Now what was he supposed to do?

"Err..."

"So," Fye cut him off, "looks like Kuro-san won the contract!"

"So we wi-"

Sakura led an Ace of diamonds

Kurogane was puzzled but looked in the common direction of the other two. Everyone looked at Fye.

"And I'm the dummy..." Fye whispered placing down his cards one by one.

Ace Hearts. King hearts. Queen hearts. Jack hearts. 10 hearts. 9 hearts.

Fye stopped to survey the golden silence. Then he continued.

8 hearts. 7 hearts. 6 hearts, 5 hearts...

No! Syaoran told himself, this only happened once in 635,013,559,600 bridge games!

4 hearts. 3 hearts.

Fye paused for suspense.

He flicked down his thirteenth card. 2 hearts.

Syaoran's mouth dropped open in shock and his amber eyes widened to saucers.

Sakura looked like she was about to faint.

Kurogane scratched his head.

"Ooh! Looks like we won Kuro-po. Oh well." Fye flicked his hand dismissively. "Wanna play again?"

Syaoran jumped onto the table and over to catch the fainting Sakura before she fell of her stool.

Kurogane got up and walked away. What a stupid game, he told himself.


End file.
